Geoffrey Stevens

Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens, an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail, teaches political science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph. He welcomes comments at the address below. This article appeared in the Waterloo Region Record and the Guelph Mercury.

Senate scandal penny-ante drama

Jun 032013

Insight

Duffygate and Wallingate linger because real issue is government integrity.

by Geoffrey Stevens

The Senate expenses scandal — starring Duff, Pam, Nigel, Stephen and all the lesser lights — may be fine political theatre. But it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans — or loonies.

This is penny-ante stuff, a drop in the old Ottawa bucket. So Mike Duffy collected $90,000-odd in housing allowances, and Nigel Wright tried to save Old Duff’s butt by paying the piper, with or without (we’re not sure yet) telling his boss, the prime minister. It looks as though Duffy also did some double-dipping on his expenses. But if that’s fraud, it’s petty fraud.

True confessions of a media lickspittle

May 262013

Insight

Conservatives flailing at media criticism shows how exposed they are.

by Geoffrey Stevens

Confession, they say, is good for the soul. With that in mind, I will make a confession: I am a media lickspittle. A lickspittle, according to the dictionary, is not a nice thing to be; it means “a contemptible, fawning person; a servile flatterer or toady.”

Let me hasten to add, I am not the only toady in these parts. Thanks to Senator Marjory LeBreton, Stephen Harper’s leader in the upper house, we now know that the capital, and indeed the country, are infested by lickspittles.

People are starting to laugh at Harper blunders

May 202013

Insight

Harper has thrown so many colleagues under the bus the space must be getting crowded.

by Geoffrey Stevens

“I don't know whether to laugh or cry”
– retired House of Commons law clerk Rob Walsh, on the Mike Duffy/Nigel Wright Senate expenses uproar, CBC-TV, May 17.

Politicians don’t like it when people get really mad at them. Anger creates political damage. But they like it far less when people start laughing at them. Humour can destroy politicians and their careers. Witness former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, an honourable man who never recovered after Stephen Harper (with significant help from Mike Duffy, then a broadcaster) got the country laughing at him in the 2008 election.

Today, it seems to me, the Harper government is in peril of being dragged across that line between anger and laughter.

Wynne and Horwath — democracy at work

May 122013

Insight

Ontario Liberals and NDP face risks in dickering over principles.

by Geoffrey Stevens

Watching parliamentary democracy at work can be harrowing. During an election, party leaders and their confederates present competing visions (or, more prosaically, platforms) for the electorate to consider. But once the election is over, smart winners don’t simply impose their visions. They have to negotiate with the Opposition.

Smart leaders remember that elections are not decided by partisans (Tim Hudak take note). Core supporters are important, but elections are won or lost on the votes of “loose fish” – uncommitted or lightly affiliated voters – who swim around at election time. More important, smart winners understand that they have not been elected solely to cater to their core; they understand that people who did not (and might never) vote for them are entitled to the same consideration from the government as its partisans.

Politics a three-ring battlefield lately

May 052013

Insight

Justin prevails, Wynne and Horwath tangle, and backbenchers begin to rebel.

by Geoffrey Stevens

Who says Canadian politics is dull? In Southern Ontario, we are witnessing three fascinating political battles. At Queen’s Park, Premier Kathleen Wynne is fighting for survival. Last week’s budget bought her Liberals some time, enough to get through the summer, I think, and probably the fall. My guess is she won’t make it – or want to make it – past next spring’s budget.

In Ottawa, the Liberal party, perceived to be moribund following three general election defeats, is struggling to return to life under Justin Trudeau, its fifth leader (including interim Bob Rae) in seven years. It’s beginning to look as though the Liberals will manage to self-resuscitate.

Ontario on brink of an election

Apr 292013

Insight

Nobody is cheering about the idea of going to the polls in June.

by Geoffrey Stevens

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s retreaded Liberal government will bring down its budget on Thursday — her first since taking over at Queen’s Park in February — and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen. We may not know until Wednesday or even Thursday. As of today, there’s probably a 35-40 percent chance that Wynne’s negotiations with NDP leader Andrea Horwath will fail. If they do, the minority Liberal government will fall within days, and Ontarians will be sent to the polls in June.

Ottawa presses reset button

Apr 212013

Insight

Let's hit the reset button on transparency, and start with backtracking on the F-35 purchase.

by Geoffrey Stevens

Out in computerland, they talk a lot about “hitting the reset button.” This term implies getting rid of all the bad stuff that went before, correcting mistakes and starting over again. A new beginning, you might say.

The expression has crept into politics. The Harper government promised to “hit the reset button” on plans to spend — what? — $40 or $50 billion on F-35 fighter aircraft. The government has not said what, if anything, has happened in the months since it ostensibly hit the reset button. Perhaps the bright lights in the Department of National Defence are still laboring 24/7 to wrap their heads around the awkward concept that there are more suitable aircraft available at a (much) more reasonable cost.

Ottawa competition changing

Apr 142013

Insight

Stephen Harper, meet Marilyn Monroe and the political seven year itch.

by Geoffrey Stevens

One of the most iconic scenes in American cinema comes from the 1955 Billy Wilder film, The Seven Year Itch. It shows Marilyn Monroe, the love interest in the film, standing on a Lexington Avenue subway grate, trying to hold down the billowing skirt of her sexy white dress.

What does this have to do with Stephen Harper, you may ask? Well, maybe a bit.

Time for the Liberals to prove they’re not just running on fumes

Apr 082013

Insight

Justin Trudeau, Martin Cauchon, Karen McCrimmon, Joyce Murray, Martha Hall Findlay, George Takach, Deborah Coyne, David Bertschi

Justin Trudeau growing into a politician whose youth appeal just might help defeat Stephen Harper.

by Geoffrey Stevens

A week from now Justin Trudeau will slip on his father’s old shoes (sandals perhaps) as the new national leader of the Liberal party. Everything will change. Or will it?

Will it be a watershed moment in Canadian politics — a fresh beginning for the proud Liberals? Or just a last kick at the can by a tired third-place party running on the fumes of nostalgia as it struggles to stave off irrelevancy?

Closing the back door on abortion debate

Apr 012013

Insight

PM shuts down backbencher attempt to drag out the crazy old aunt in the Tory attic.

by Geoffrey Stevens

The mini-revolt that Stephen Harper suppressed in the Conservative caucus may not have amounted to much last week, but it did raise a couple of important principles — conflicting principles.

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